Women working to narrow gender gap in engineering

Morgan Garcia-Grishman (from left), Kaleigh Byrnes and Jose Torres measure how much a wood ruler bends as they use it as a cantilever during a California Lutheran University engineering class. Only 18 percent of U.S. college engineering graduates are women, and girls start losing interest in science as young as age 8, studies show.

Ventura County Star

Debbie Sterling hadn't planned on designing toys when she started in the engineering program at Stanford University.

The Bay Area woman was one of relatively few in the predominantly male program and always felt like she had to work harder to prove herself. After graduating in 2005, Sterling realized her dream job was to change things for the next generation of girls.

"We start losing girls in the pipeline of engineering when they're really young," she said. They don't see women in the field, and that "sends a message that it's a boys-only thing."

On the fundraising website Kickstarter.com last month, Sterling launched GoldieBlox, a construction toy and book series about a kid inventor she hopes to be a role model for young girls. Hundreds of backers, from Europe to Santa Barbara, pre-ordered the item within days of the launch.

From new toys to mentorships at universities, efforts are growing to get girls interested in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Experts report an increasing need for qualified candidates in those fields, in which women are underrepresented.

Women received about 57 percent of bachelor's degrees awarded by U.S. universities in 2010, a survey by federal agencies shows. But of the 74,399 degrees in engineering, only 13,693, or 18 percent, were given to women.

"The relatively few women who do receive STEM degrees are concentrated in physical and life sciences, in contrast to men, who are concentrated primarily in engineering," according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Factors for the disparity range from a lack of female role models to gender stereotyping, the report states.

Sandy Birmingham, an outreach coordinator at CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo, was named one of the "Leading Women in STEM" last month by a nonprofit group called the California STEM Learning Network.

Getting more people to pursue degrees in STEM fields can help change those numbers, said Birmingham, who thinks hearing from successful women in such careers can help.

Girls need to see that math and science are not just a boy thing, said Tara Leach, 21, a senior in bioengineering at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

"I think promoting it at a young age is a very good thing," she said.

Of the 52 bioengineering majors and minors at CLU, 27 are women, said Professor Bob Rumer. His introductory bioengineering class is close to an even split, in which he and the university take pride, he said.

Students, however, say there is still a disparity at the liberal-arts college, mostly in supporting classes outside of the health field.

"I've never been in a class where the girls have outnumbered the guys," Leach said. "Math classes are flooded with boys. Physics is flooded with boys."

Raised in the Bay Area, Whitehead decided in high school to pursue engineering, allowing her to delve into her interests from chemistry to building.

In a family of engineers, she would be the first woman in her family to claim the profession.

"They've always expected a lot from me. It was always full contact sports, even though I'm kind of small. I didn't have as much push-back just because they expect me to keep up with the guys," she said. "Gender isn't what defines me."

CLU classmate Allyson Dorsey, 21, said she wasn't sold on engineering when she was younger.

"I was kind of against the whole engineering thing just because it was such a boy thing to do," Dorsey said. "And then in high school, I realized I'm really good at math. I'm really good at science. That's actually what I like to do. Why wouldn't I do engineering if that's something I enjoy?"

The students liked the idea of a construction toy for girls, saying it's really about changing people's perceptions so engineering is not seen as an unusual choice for a woman.

Sterling's Kickstarter campaign had nearly $286,000 and 5,519 backers when it wrapped up last month, nearly double its original $150,000 target.

Sterling hopes to have toys in people's hands by February, but her work is far from over.

"The idea has always been to expand into an entire series of books," she said.